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An Introduction to Contemporary Work Psychology

An Introduction to Contemporary work Psychology , First Edition. Edited by Maria C. W. Peeters, Jan de Jonge and Toon W. Taris. 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, CraftingEVANGELIA DEMEROUTI AND ARNOLD B. IntroductionThe increasing popularity of self-managing teams, re-engineering and other organizational innovations, coupled with the increased flexibility in work arrange-ments made possible by advances in information technology, has considerably expanded the complexity of professional jobs. Consequently, each job position seems to be characterized by a unique constellation of working conditions that the organization can hardly be aware of. Not surprisingly, top-down organizational Chapter ObjectivesAfter studying this chapter, you should be able to:t understand the restrictions of top-down job redesign approaches;t explain the gap that job crafting fills in top-down job redesign approaches;t provide a thorough insight into what job crafting really is;t describe some research evidence on the predictors and outcomes of job crafting;t recognize unresolved and critical issues regarding job crafting;t describe an intervention on how to stimulate job-crafting CRAFTING415interventions to improve motivation and organizational performance often seem partly ineffec

A more contemporary example concerns the introduction of project work where individuals within and outside an organization work interdepend- ently on the development of a …

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Transcription of An Introduction to Contemporary Work Psychology

1 An Introduction to Contemporary work Psychology , First Edition. Edited by Maria C. W. Peeters, Jan de Jonge and Toon W. Taris. 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, CraftingEVANGELIA DEMEROUTI AND ARNOLD B. IntroductionThe increasing popularity of self-managing teams, re-engineering and other organizational innovations, coupled with the increased flexibility in work arrange-ments made possible by advances in information technology, has considerably expanded the complexity of professional jobs. Consequently, each job position seems to be characterized by a unique constellation of working conditions that the organization can hardly be aware of. Not surprisingly, top-down organizational Chapter ObjectivesAfter studying this chapter, you should be able to:t understand the restrictions of top-down job redesign approaches;t explain the gap that job crafting fills in top-down job redesign approaches;t provide a thorough insight into what job crafting really is;t describe some research evidence on the predictors and outcomes of job crafting;t recognize unresolved and critical issues regarding job crafting;t describe an intervention on how to stimulate job-crafting CRAFTING415interventions to improve motivation and organizational performance often seem partly ineffective (Biron, Karanika-Murray, & Cooper, 2012).

2 Therefore organi-zations have started to recognize that redesign approaches initiated by individuals or job holders themselves (bottom-up) should be promoted and combined with approaches initiated by the aim of this chapter is to zoom in on the process through which organiza-tions can improve the working conditions for their employees by offering them the opportunity to do so themselves. This process is called job crafting and can be seen as a specific form of proactive behaviour in which the employee initiates changes in the level of job demands and job resources to make their own job more meaningful, engaging and satisfying. Our basic premise is that job crafting can be used next to top-down approaches to improve jobs in order to overcome the inadequacies of job redesign approaches. Job crafting can also be used to respond to the complexity of Contemporary jobs and to deal with the needs of the current workforce.

3 The chapter starts with a brief overview of the roots of job crafting, namely job redesign (Section ). After presenting the inadequacies of classical job redesign approaches, we will continue with some attempts to individualize job redesign that can also be considered as precursors of job crafting. In the next sec-tion (Section ), we provide an overview of job crafting as a job redesign approach and zoom in on its conceptualization and on its predictors and out-comes. In Section we make the link between job crafting and the implemen-tation of organizational change and innovation as these represent enduring requirements of modern organizations. As job crafting represents a relatively new construct in the literature, there are several issues that remain unresolved, as well as critical notes that can be made about it. These are presented in Section In the following section (Section ), we present some ideas on how to inter-vene and stimulate the job-crafting behaviour of employees.

4 We end this chapter with some conclusions and suggestions for further reading (Section ). The Roots of Job CraftingWe first present a brief overview of the roots of job crafting, namely job redesign and the unresolved problems associated with redesign and its unresolved problemsJob design describes how jobs, tasks, and roles are structured, enacted, and mod-ified, as well as the impact of these structures, enactments, and modifications on individual, group, and organizational outcomes (Grant & Parker, 2009, p. 319). Job design usually represents a top-down process in which organizations create jobs and form the conditions under which the job holders/incumbents execute their tasks (see also Chapter 3). In addition, job redesign is usually seen as the process through which the organization or supervisor changes something in the job, tasks or conditions of the individual (Tims & Bakker, 2010).

5 We will focus particularly on job redesign in this chapter. An example of a traditional job 416 DEMEROUTI AND BAKKER redesign effort is the increase in individual and team autonomy in the production process. A more Contemporary example concerns the Introduction of project work where individuals within and outside an organization work interdepend-ently on the development of a product, often under time pressure. In each case, the structure and content of the work can be redesigned by the organization, with as the ultimate goal the improvement of outcomes such as employee work engage-ment, performance and reviews of the job redesign literature are available elsewhere and we do not aim to repeat them here ( Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008; Parker & Ohly, 2008). A basic premise in the job redesign literature is that stimulating jobs foster motivating psychological states that contribute to favourable attitudinal and behavioural work outcomes ( Fried, Grant, Levi, Hadani, & Slowik, 2007).

6 During the past three decades, research on job redesign has played an important role in bringing theory into organizational practice. Prominent theo-ries such as the Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1980), Socio-Technical Systems Theory (Trist, 1981), Action Regulation Theory (Hacker, 2003) and the Interdisciplinary work Design Framework (Campion & McClelland, 1993) have stimulated much of the research in the field. Researchers have accu-mulated extensive knowledge about the diverse task, knowledge and physical characteristics of jobs, the psychological and behavioural effects of job redesign, the mediating mechanisms that explain these effects, and the individual and con-textual factors that moderate these effects ( Grant & Parker, 2009; Humphrey, Nahrgang, & Morgeson, 2007). Moreover, existing research has helped organi-zational practice by providing guidelines for practitioners to design work to promote employee performance and , job redesign research has revealed mixed results.

7 According to Fried (1991) this is probably due to the relative weak relation between stimulating job characteristics and work outcomes such as job performance, turnover and absen-teeism (Fried, 1991). Namely, although research supports the hypothesized rela-tions between stimulating job characteristics and attitudinal outcomes such as internal work motivation and job satisfaction, the magnitude of the association between the core job characteristics and these attitudinal outcomes appears to be moderate rather than high (Fried, 1991; Parker et al., 2001). Moreover, although the literature suggests a positive relation between employee motivation and job performance, this relation tends to be relatively weak ( Demerouti & Bakker, 2006; Demerouti & Cropanzano, 2010; see also Chapter 13). These findings suggest that there are characteristics of the context or characteristics of employees that may play a role in moderating employee reactions (Johns, 2006).

8 Some scholars have argued that there is a lack of systematic attention for the context the situational opportunities and constraints that affect attitudes and behaviours (Fried et al., 2007; Johns, 2006).Moreover, traditional job redesign approaches have been criticized for no longer reflecting and integrating the dramatic changes in the work contexts that have occurred during the past few decades (Grant & Parker, 2009; Humphrey et al., 2007). These changes include a shift from manufacturing to a service-oriented economy, an increase in the knowledge-based industry, JOB CRAFTING417growth in globalization and global operations across different countries, societies and cultures, and the growing use of innovative technologies and flexible work methods ranging from virtual teams to telework and new ways of working (ten Brummelhuis, Bakker, Hetland, & Keulemans, 2012) as a basis for operations.

9 Simultaneously, the nature of the workforce itself is changing considerably, with more women involved, greater ethnic diversity, more educated employees, an aging population and altered psychological con-tracts between employers and employees. New approaches to job redesign have started to integrate these changes. The underlying factor in these new approaches is that they more actively involve the individual employee in the job redesign of job redesign approachesIn response to the mixed findings regarding the effectiveness of job redesign approaches as well as to the changes in the job context and content along with changes in the workforce, job redesign approaches started to integrate more social aspects of the job (rather than only mechanistic aspects, such as tasks, structures and environmental conditions) which are inherent in many Contemporary job functions (Grant & Parker, 2009).

10 Relational perspectives of job redesign focus on how jobs, roles and tasks are more socially embedded than ever before, based on increases in interdependence between and interactions with co-workers and service recipients. The emerging relational perspective on job redesign provides important insights into the social characteristics of work , which include interaction outside the organization, task interdependence, social support and interpersonal feedback (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2006). Moreover, Grant and Parker (2009) suggested that additional social characteristics of work include interpersonal display rules for emotions (Diefendorff & Richard, 2003) and opportunities to benefit others (task signifi-cance; Hackman & Oldham, 1980). Such characteristics connect employees actions to the well-being of other people and are therefore important for job to Grant and Parker (2009), another Contemporary approach to job redesign that reflects the move towards individualization of job redesign is proactive perspectives.


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